->''"Hail, Hydra! Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place! We serve none but the Master—as the world shall soon serve us! Hail HYDRA!"''-->--'''The Hydra Oath from Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965)'''

Hydra is a fictional terrorist organization in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. It first appeared in ''Strange Tales #135'' (August 1965), created by Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby. It served as the rival organization to ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}. The name is not an acronym but rather a reference to [[Myth/ClassicalMythology the mythical Lernaean Hydra]]. The organization's motto references the myth of the Hydra, stating that "if a head is cut off, two more will take its place" proclaiming their resilience and growing strength in the face of resistance. HYDRA agents often wear distinctive green garb featuring a serpent motif.

Hydra is a criminal organization dedicated to the achievement of world domination through terrorist and subversive activities on various fronts, resulting in a fascist New World Order. Its extent of operations is worldwide, always attempting to elude the ongoing counter-espionage operations by S.H.I.E.L.D. Hydra is funded by Baron Strucker's personal fortune, based on his recovered hoard of Nazi plunder from World War II, and funds established by the original leaders of the Japanese secret society that became Hydra.

The organization is usually run with behind-the-scenes direction by Baron Strucker, alias Supreme Hydra. Under him is a central ruling committee; under them are individual division chiefs, and under them are the rank and file members and special agents.

In order to become a member of Hydra, an individual must be a legal adult willing to submit to a thorough investigation of the applicant's personal background and to swear a death-oath of loyalty to Hydra and its principles.

In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, HYDRA was originally a top-secret Nazi weapons research unit led by the ComicBook/RedSkull, but quickly split away from the Third Reich altogether. However, it was [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS3E8ManyHeadsOneTale later]] {{retcon}}ned into being an AncientConspiracy.

----!!This Creator/MarvelComics faction provides examples of:

* AbusiveParents: Baron Strucker's reaction to discovering Andreas Strucker had been killed by Comicbook/NormanOsborn when asking for a favor? "Okay, that's '''two''' favors I owe you." (Andy got better though, see Cloning Blues).* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Hydra started off as an actual Nazi organisation during World War II which became independent when the actual Nazis, well, lost. When your founders are Nazis it's no stretch that your organisation end up Nazi-like. (As revealed in ''Captain America: Hail Hydra'' and ''Secret Warriors'', Hydra actually let the Nazis ''think'' that, but are actually older. Still, they saw the Nazis as having compatible goals, and still have evidence of that connection.)* AncientConspiracy: Revealed to be this in ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors''.** Obtaining the Serpent Crown, an artifact of the Elder God Set, has been one of its goals.* ArchEnemy: Baron Strucker is this to Nick Fury. Madame Hydra is this to Spider-Woman* BadBoss: Baron Strucker once blew up a base with 15,000 personnel in it.* BaldOfEvil: Baron Strucker.* BadassArmy: Despite all the superheroes being thrown at them they still managed to have survived as an organization for over sixty years.* TheBaroness: Viper, the Madame Hydra.* BigBad: Baron Strucker was the founder and leader of Hydra but now Madame Hydra is the leader currently after Strucker's death.* CameBackWrong: Viper. She got better.* CharacterizationMarchesOn: or goals and origin stories do at any rate. In their first appearance, they're a generically SPECTRE-like organization run by "a nondescript businessman." They're soon reinvented as TheRemnant, an organization of former Axis war criminals who survived World War Two and are trying to restore a fascistic regime. ''Then,'' they're reinvented as an AncientConspiracy from the dawn of mankind, responsible for a number of terrible things throughout history, of which fascism is only one of the latest.* CloningBlues: The Red Skull and Baron Strucker's twin children have both cheated death this way. * CollapsingLair: Seems to happen to any place Baron Strucker stays too long.* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Literally, with the (temporary) Corporate Hydra branch.** Hydra is revealed to have still been involved in this with two major megacorporations under its control.* TheDragon: Gorgon** Baron Strucker was this to the ComicBook/RedSkull. It's debatable who created it in comic book continuity as a result.* ElaborateUndergroundBase: A Hydra mainstay.** UnderwaterBase is one of their favorites too.* EliteMooks: Advanced Idea Mechanics started as the Elite Mooks of Hydra, being its super-science division. HYDRA itself developed robotic soldiers called Dreadnoughts for this purpose, and in some continuities Hydra itself started out as or becomes the Elite Mook organization working for the ComicBook/RedSkull.* EqualOpportunityEvil: Japanese Ninja, German Nazis, Arab terrorists, and more.* EnemyCivilWar: A frequent problem. Hydra are notorious for schisms and violent internal power struggles, but being devoted to the Fuhrer-principle and having no real ideology beyond "TakeOverTheWorld"[[note]][[MemeticMutation Of]] [[Film/StreetFighter COURSE!]][[/note]] will do that.* EvenEvilHasStandards: Strucker has done some genuinely appalling stuff but has surprisingly done a few PetTheDog moments as well.** Madame Viper is the opposite. She's so scary ''she terrified the Red Skull.''* EvilCounterpart: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s.* EvilerThanThou: The Kingpin once went against Hydra. For once, it didn't go his way.* FacelessGoons: Its members all wear identical green masked outfits. The motto of the group is "Cut off a limb and two more will take its place", referencing the monster that is their namesake and lampshading the fact that these guys aren't individuals.* FunWithAcronyms: They appeared as [[spoiler:'''H'''ope '''Y'''ards '''D'''evelopment and '''R'''elocation '''A'''ssociation]] in [[ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel 2015 relaunch]] of ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Ms. Marvel]]''.* {{Ghostapo}} / StupidJetpackHitler: A weird example as modern Hydra has all of this but is not a Nazi successor organization, having originated as an ancient Egyptian cult called the Brotherhood of the Spear.* GoodScarsEvilScars: Baron Strucker's dueling scars are definitely evil.* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: Hydra's war against the Howling Commando's PMC and Leviathan.* HalfIdenticalTwins: Baron Strucker's mutant twin children, Andreas and Andrea (aka the Fenris twins).* HydraProblem: Hydra has this as its motto but, seriously, no one has yet caused the organization to grow weaker despite 60 years of fighting it.* HighlyConspicuousUniform: HYDRA soldiers typically wear a bright green/yellow ensemble, sometimes with the organization's logo as a chest patch.* TheInfiltration: It's revealed that HYDRA had infiltrated [[spoiler:SHIELD shortly after the latter had been formed... and then Nick Fury reveals that he'd known that all along and ''reverse-infiltrated'' HYDRA, letting them think they were manipulating SHIELD from the shadows when it was actually the other way around]].* LegionOfDoom: Not really but a surprising number of Marvel villains have either worked for or with HYDRA over the years: Baron Strucker, Baron Zemo, the Kingpin, Richard Fisk, Madame Hydra, the Serpent Society, Crossbones, the Red Skull, Deadpool, Gorgon, Fenris, a brainwashed Wolverine, the Hand, AIM, Richard Nixon (!!) through the Secret Empire, Don Fortunato, The Thunderbolts (without the majority of members knowing), ComicBook/NormanOsborn, and so on. ComicBook/SpiderWoman also started out as a HYDRA agent, until she was set straight by Nick Fury. And now we got [[spoiler:''Captain friggin' America'']] on their team.* MeleeATrois: Leviathan vs. Shield vs. Hydra in the ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'' comic.* MythicalMotifs: Named after the Hydra from Greek mythology, a many headed creature, where if you cut off one head, two more grow in its place.* NaziGold: How the original Hydra was funded.* NaziNobleman: Baron Strucker, Baron Zemo* NebulousEvilOrganization: One of the oldest and most successful.* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Baron Strucker is clearly based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny Otto Skorzeny]], right down to the [[GoodScarsEvilScars prominent dueling scars]].* NukeEm: The Overkill Horn is designed to do this on a large scale. * OffscreenVillainDarkMatter: The only way to explain how the organization affords its many, many bases.** ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'' {{retcon}}ned this into having two of the largest conglomerates in the world working for them. Their accumulated assets is said to be around six hundred ''billion'' dollars.*** Strucker has alien technology so this is less questionable than it sounds.* OverlordJr: Fenris (Andreas). He has actually begun to use the name Baron Strucker since his father's death.* PunchClockVillain: It's implied the majority of Hydra agents are this.* ReligionOfEvil: Has elements of this with the retcon.* RenegadeSplinterFaction: Several other major Marvel Universe evil organisations began as sub-divisions or splinter-groups of Hydra, notably including AIM, the Hand, and the Secret Empire.** The Hand consider themselves to be the original and Hydra the splinter group, however.* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Modern Hydra has been known to employ class-warfare rhetoric.** Which actually fits with their Nazi roots.* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The organization's history as a mutual aid society for fugitive Nazis that evolved into an international terrorist group bears a distinct resemblance to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODESSA ODESSA]] and Otto Skorzeny's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paladin_Group Paladin Group]].** Similarly, their 2012 revamp as a grassroots group dedicated to fighting the depredations of global neoliberal capitalism probably has something to do with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession recent failings of same]].* RunningBothSides: [[spoiler: Turns out that Hydra secretly owned S.H.I.E.L.D. Then it turned out that Nick Fury knew this all along and was using it to manipulate Hydra.]]* ShutUpHannibal: Nick Fury has a Reverse Hannibal Lecture with Baron Strucker at the end of ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'' where he reveals [[spoiler: Baron Strucker never controlled SHIELD--Nick Fury had known all along about his bugs and used it to feed him false information.]]* SmugSnake: Andreas Strucker has always been considered to be whipping boy of Hydra. He eventually stopped being smug when he became the Swordsman. Then he became the ButtMonkey.** Baron Strucker is reduced to this at the end of ''ComicBook/SecretWarriors'' by the greater MagnificentBastard of Nick Fury.* TheStarscream: Gorgon* TheSyndicate: HYDRA is heavily involved in organized crime.** Indeed, it is a full-blown NebulousCriminalConspiracy appropriately enough. All a crook needs is Hydra or Maggia ties to justify crazy-tech.* TakeOverTheWorld: As if anything less could satisfy them!* TerroristsWithoutACause* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Hydra calls one of its superweapons The Overkill Horn. Its function? Remotely activating every single nuclear weapon on the surface of the planet the whole world over.* ThoseWackyNazis: Their original incarnation. The modern organization has no racial agenda, accepting members from all nationalities. One snarky but likely explanation is: "You can't sell toys of Nazis."** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' they stand-in for Nazis as the main menace, probably to allow the film to show where [[NoSwastikas such references are forbidden]]. This also happened in some Marvel cartoons as well.* WeHaveReserves: And HOW! Hydra has lost literally tens of thousands of personnel on-screen over the course of its existence.* WesternTerrorists* WhatMeasureIsAMook: A question never asked by superheroes as even die-hards capes like Captain America have no problem killing Hydra goons.** Subverted by Deadpool's sidekick Bob.* VillainTeamUp: Surprisingly rare until recently. Most Hydra villains were members of Hydra or one of its break-away branches. ComicBook/NormanOsborn is one of the few to reach out to Hydra.* YouHaveFailedMe: The penalty for failure in Hydra is death. In fact, in the organization's years of being divided and fractured without Baron Von Strucker, the various Hydra factions were spending more time killing ''themselves'' after their schemes were thwarted than accomplishing anything.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Again, they started out as a Nazi science division so the similarities are abundant. The modern version has dropped the racial purity angle though. [[spoiler: And it's later revealed that HYDRA has existed for centuries, way before the Red Skull was the leader.]]** This is given a big fat Lampshade Hanging in [[spoiler: ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', where Skye calls Ward a Nazi. Though he denies it.]]* AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler: Is revealed to be this in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'']]* ArcWelding: [[spoiler: Senator Stern from ''Film/IronMan2'', Agent Sitwell, and the Clairvoyant in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' are all Hydra agents.]]* BigBad: The Red Skull, [[spoiler: Armin Zola, Alexander Pierce, Garrett]], Daniel Whitehall, [[spoiler: Agent Ward, Gideon Mallick and Hive]].* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Similar to their comic book counterpart as noted above. When they were first introduced, they were a Nazi agency that was going rogue. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' reinvents them as an AncientConspiracy, [[spoiler:which has worshiped an Inhuman since the dawn of time and is trying to bring about his return]]. * EliteMooks: Deathlok [[spoiler: (until being freed from Hydra's control in "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E22BeginningOfTheEnd Beginning of the End]]"), Agent Ward]], Crossbones, the Winter Soldier a.k.a.[[spoiler: (Bucky Barnes, through being brainwashed)]].* EnemyCivilWar: [[spoiler: There are 2 major ideologies within HYDRA who aren't very fond of each other: The scientific branch and the {{Cult}}, worhsipping and aiming to bring back Hive to Earth.]]* EqualOpportunityEvil: [[spoiler:The modern version has women and people from all races as members, which is kind of funny seeing as how the Nazis were its roots.]]** This {{Justified}} in the comic book prequel to ''The First Avenger.'' The Red Skull in a JustBetweenYouAndMe moment, tells Doctor Erskine he thinks the Aryan supremacy thing is "racist junk science" which he knows because he's an actual genius. It's useful for gaining him political power, though, and he's willing to protect Erskine's Jewish wife (or NOT protect her) if he works for him. Erskine actually thinks this makes him ''worse'' than Hitler.** Further {{Justified}} when we find out [[spoiler: Hydra is an AncientConspiracy devoted to the worship of a primordial Inhuman.]]* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: [[spoiler: Modern Hydra's thing]].* EvilerThanThou: To the ''Nazis''.* EvilIsPetty: In addition to all the atrocities mentioned on this page, HYDRA has also... [[BreakingTheFourthWall leaked the]] ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' [[http://www.hitfix.com/news/marvel-blames-hydra-for-leaked-avengers-age-of-ultron-trailer trailer]].* ForScience: Armin Zola's motivation [[spoiler: even after his "retirement" in America.]]** Raina and other ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' villains have this motivation. Notable because, at least Raina, finds the idea of working for Hydra otherwise discomforting. ** Doctor Whitehall has this as his motivation.* GeniusBruiser: [[spoiler: Garrett. He looks like Bill Paxton and acts like a frat boy but manages an ultra-secret scientific conspiracy for Hydra.]]* GovernmentConspiracy: One in the Nazi government's at the start. [[spoiler: Then one in America]].* {{Ghostapo}}[=/=]StupidJetpackHitler: They were the Nazi science division before going rogue.* TheHeavy: [[spoiler: Agent Ward serves as this to Hydra and eventually becomes TheDragon before moving to DragonAscendant.]]* HidingInPlainSight: [[spoiler:As S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sleeper cell]].* HydraProblem: Actually a bigger issue than in the mainstream version where Baron Strucker is usually in charge. Hydra has had numerous leaders and when one dies, they just get another one.* TheInfiltration: It's revealed that HYDRA had infiltrated [[spoiler:SHIELD shortly after the latter had been formed]].* KillEmAll: Hydra's plan for world domination [[spoiler: through SHIELD]] requires 20,000,000 deaths. * NotQuiteDead: Armin Zola is alive at the end of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. [[spoiler: This was a massive mistake.]]* OldShame: InUniverse example. The group's Nazi past and variant on the Sieg Heil salute becomes this in modern days according to [[spoiler:Garrett and Ward]]. Daniel Whitehall, who becomes leader after them, averts this as he's clearly unrepentant about his Nazi past and makes numerous invocations to it left and right.* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Outside of the MCU - Bob, Agent Of HYDRA has a [[TheCameo cameo]] in ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' as a {{mook}}, though any ties to HYDRA are ExiledFromContinuity due to Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox not having the rights to the organization. Similarly, Viper from ''Film/TheWolverine'' is never referred to as Madame Hydra, but is exclusively referred to as Viper.* TheManBehindTheMan: To Centipede.* ReligionOfEvil: The [[spoiler: Ancient]] Hydra were one of these.* RenegadeSplinterFaction: The movieverse Hydra are a splinter-group of the Third Reich who outlived their predecessors.* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Hydra's [[spoiler:infiltration of SHIELD]] is specifically said to have begun with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip Operation Paperclip]].* StrangeSalute: They stick both arms, with clenched fists, in the air and scream "Hail HYDRA!" It looks a lot like the Nazi salute. [[spoiler:The salute is mocked in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', where Garrett says it makes the person doing it look like "West Texas cheerleader at a Pep Rally"]]. * StupidJetpackHitler: The movieverse Hydra grew out of a top-secret Third Reich weapons-research unit.* WellIntentionedExtremist: How the [[spoiler: modern]] faction portrays itself. Given that their master plan involves killing anyone who is a threat to them, this is likely BS.** [[spoiler: Alexander Pierce]] is. His rationale, however, is ''batshit insane.''* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Baron Strucker]] considers the [[spoiler: SHIELD infiltration]] to be this in TheStinger.----